Your Magic Touch (12 page)
Authors: Kathy Carmichael
The others quickly stared at them, too, except for Harrison who turned the digital video camera he wielded in Sinclair’s direction.
“You may want to come investigate in the Princess Room,” Frannie said. “I just encountered a, um, an entity there.”
“Wh-what did you see?” asked Maury.
“A female apparition was lying on my bed. I saw her in the mirror, but when I turned around she was gone.”
“Let’s go,” said Willie Jo.
As they all headed toward the Princess Room, Frannie reclaimed her hand from Sinclair’s and pulled her pen and notepad from her pocket. “This is exactly the sort of story the
Spy
sent me to cover.”
Harrison glanced at the pen in her hand, then shot Sinclair a wry smile. “Something you’re not telling us, cuz?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he replied. Knowing his cousin, though, it was probably naughty.
“First you had her pen and now you’re holding hands,” said Harrison.
Sinclair glared at him.
Thomas stopped in his tracks and pointed at Harrison. “You had Frannie’s pen, not Sinclair.”
“I don’t understand why Frannie’s pen is such a big deal.” Harrison shrugged. “I found it on Sinclair’s desk.”
Maury grinned broadly and gave Thomas a push forward to get him walking again. “Told you so.”
Frannie wasn’t quite sure what
the ghost hunters were talking about, but she did gather that somehow her pen had come into Sinclair’s possession. She didn’t understand that at all.
As they neared the Princess Room, she asked him, “How’d you get my pen?”
“Some insane bird stabbed me with it.”
“A white dove?”
“How’d you know?”
“A dove stole it from behind my ear.”
Either this was a very strange coincidence, or her meeting Sinclair was fated. She liked the second idea.
He motioned for her to go first into the Princess Room.
“I’m not going back in there alone. You go first.”
The problem was solved when Harrison and the ghost hunters shouldered in front of them and entered the bedroom first. The scientists pulled out their equipment and immediately went to work.
An hour later, they were no farther ahead.
“Whatever was here simply isn’t here now,” Willie Jo said. “I’m ready to go back to the basement to investigate there.”
“Sounds like a plan,” replied Harrison. Not only was he no longer playing tricks on the ghost hunters, apparently he’d enlisted in their cause.
Frannie had no intention of ever returning to that basement. The very idea made her skin crawl. “I’ll pass.”
They all shuffled out of her room, except Sinclair. “Are you going to stay here?”
“I do need to work on my article—” Frannie’s gaze shot to the empty bed and back to him. The ghost hunters hadn’t found anything, so it should be safe. Shouldn’t it?
Sin Boy stared at her a beat too long. “Want me to check and make sure everything is okay here before I go?”
She wanted to hug him, she was so relieved at his offer. “If you wouldn’t mind.”
She watched as he looked under the bed and in the closets, and smoothed the covers on her bed. He inspected the mirror and even looked in the dresser drawers. “Seems to be fine in here. Shall I check your en suite?”
“Please.” Frannie followed him into the bathroom, where he looked in the cabinets and beneath the sink, and even checked the toilet bowl.
It was so nice of him to take the time to soothe her fears. She stepped closer and touched his arm. “I know you don’t believe in this stuff, but thank you for checking.”
“I may not believe in ghosts, but I do believe you saw something that frightened you.”
Her gaze met his. He took a step toward her and dipped his head to give her the kiss she longed for. The bathroom door slammed shut, breaking the moment.
“Not again,” she wailed.
Sinclair’s brows shot up. “What on earth?”
He stepped to the door and gave it a good yank, but it didn’t open.
“That’s exactly what happened to me in the basement,” Frannie said. “Let me try.”
He signaled for her to give it a go. But the door didn’t budge.
She knocked at the door as hard as she could. It was no use. Everyone had gone down to the basement.
“I can’t believe we’ve been locked in again.” Frannie’s hands trembled, her heart dropped into her stomach and breathing was difficult as she headed into a full-fledged melt-down.
“It’s the strangest thing,” Sinclair said, taking the two steps that separated them and pulling her into his arms.
Then his lips descended on hers, and all fear fled. All she could think about was how wonderful he was and how delicious it was to be encircled in his arms.
When they came up for air, Frannie couldn’t have been happier. She had a fabulous story about an honest-to-goodness
real
ghost and an extremely hot man. She leaned forward and kissed Sinclair again. Just because she could.
“We did it,” whispered Maury
from the hallway door leading into the Princess Room. He pocketed his wand. Locking the restroom door had been a piece of cake now that his magic was less rusty.
He’d gotten in a little magic practice earlier, during their investigation of the room. He’d perfected a binding spell to keep the lady ghost from reappearing in the Princess Room while Frannie was staying there. The female spirit wasn’t a negative entity, but Maury didn’t want Frannie, or himself, scared any more than they already had been.
When he glanced at Willie Jo, he couldn’t bite back his surprise. “Merlin’s coattails. You look twenty years younger.”
“So do you,” Willie Jo replied. “You’ve got hair again.”
Maury patted his once-bald head and was delighted to find a fresh crop of hair. He looked down at his hands, where the age spots had faded.
Maury couldn’t have been happier. He, Willie Jo and Thomas had fulfilled their assignment and used their magic correctly. The reward they received was years discarded from their physical bodies.
Human mythology suggested that the wizard Merlin was born old and, as he aged, he grew younger, until he reached infancy at his demise.
The myth was wrong.
The truth was that Merlin’s proper use of magic and fulfilling his assigned tasks had resulted in his growing younger, which happens for all wizards.
With a flick of Maury’s wand, a window magically opened. The Love Dove flew in and swooped around the bedroom. Maury sighed contentedly. “One love match down and only two to go.”
“Score.” Willie Jo nodded happily. “Within a year we’ll be dancing at Sinclair and Frannie’s wedding.”
“I look forward to the momentous occasion.”
The Love Dove flew over their heads and down the hallway.
“Follow it,” cried Willie Jo, setting off in serious pursuit. “It’s going to choose our next matchmaking assignment.”
Down in the basement
in
near total darkness, Thomas and Harrison were doing an EVP session with digital recorders.
Harrison said, “If there’s any spirits here, please come forth and make yourself known.”
“Talk into this little box. It won’t hurt you. If you don’t want to speak,” added Thomas, “then give us another sign of your presence.”
Just then a dark shadow flapped over their heads, then swooped down at Harrison.
Harrison ducked his head. “What’s going on?”
Thomas chuckled. “Maybe it’s mad because you pretended to be a ghost.”
The dark shadow again dived for Harrison, but this time it grabbed something from his pocket.
As soon as the shadow raised itself to the ceiling, it flew off.
“It’s got my cellphone,” cried Harrison. “Catch that dratted bat.”
“I think it was a bird. A dove to be more exact,” was Thomas’s calm reply. “So, how do you feel about meeting the love of your life?”
THE END
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